AP Photo/Dave MartinDemonstrators protest Alabama's immigration law during Gov. Robert Bentley's State of the State address at the Capitol in Montgomery on Feb. 7.

Opponents of Alabama's immigration law have stepped up their efforts to press the key players in the state's auto industry to speak out against the measure.

Representatives of civil rights and labor groups today attended a Hyundai shareholders meeting in Seoul, South Korea, to address the law, which they called "the most vile anti-immigration law in the country."

Hyundai's U.S. manufacturing plant is in Montgomery.

Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, speaking at a press conference in Seoul, drew parallels between Alabama's violent Civil Rights era past and the immigration law that went into effect last year, HB56.

"To Americans concerned with justice and dignity, Alabama is sacred ground," he said, adding that the soil is watered with the blood, sweat and tears of those who fought for black civil rights in the 1960s.

Hyundai is a prominent investor in the state and has a moral obligation to oppose HB56, Henderson said.

"By its silence, it is acquiescing to a human rights disaster," he said.

He said he hopes Hyundai officials will pressure state leaders to immediately suspend enforcement of the law.

Eliseo Medina, international secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, cited the fast-growing Latino population in the U.S., which is watching whether Hyundai and other companies based in Alabama will oppose the law.

"In addition to this being the right thing to do...this is also good business," he said. "If Hyundai is going to be successful in the U.S. and in the Latino community, they must speak up and defend the human rights of its customers and not remain silent in the face of this moral crisis."

Medina said the union's protest against HB56 is a civil rights issue and has nothing to do with the fact that Alabama is a right-to-work state. Alabama's auto industry is largely non-union.

Alabama's automakers are being targeted because they are among the largest businesses in the state with significant investments, Henderson said.

The groups plan similar protests at the home bases of other foreign companies with operations in Alabama, including automakers Honda and Daimler AG, parent company of Mercedes-Benz, as well as BBVA Compass bank.